Three players, two in the Hall of Fame, one on his way — all made less, or slightly more Madden 24 coins  than a guy who, relatively speaking, needed to take far fewer hits, sacrifice his body less, and sit on the bench more than the other three combined.

It’s flip to try and make this all about dollar and cents, but it’s remarkable just how brilliant Fitz was at weaving his magic off the field. On it, he was pretty damn good as well. Don’t get me wrong, he never really won games — hell, he was 59-87-1 as a starter, but you’re shocked he lost that much because the mystique around Fitzpatrick made him feel like a winner, even if he wasn’t one.

In 2009 he took over for Trent Edwards and Brian Brohm in Buffalo, where they combined for a 2-6 record, before Fitzpatrick took over, went 4-4 and became a hero. The next year he went 4-9 as a starter and was still rewarded with a 6 year, $59 million contact based on the perception he was a winner.

The same thing happened in New York. One good season in 2014 with the Texans caused the Jets to forget about  Buy mut 24 coins xbox his other middling seasons, giving Fitzpatrick a $10M signing bonus and believing he could be their future at age 33.

Miami, Washington — two more stops, many millions along the way. Always carrying the promise he could be “the guy,” with his time with the Dolphins being so pronounced fans wanted him to get reps over Tua Tagovailoa. There was no worse fate for a young quarterback than playing for a team that signed Fitzpatrick, because you knew people would want to wait for the magic to appear.

That’s why I love Ryan Fitzpatrick. His career made no sense, and all the sense in the world at the same time. He pulled the wool over the eyes of a huge chunk of the Madden NFL 24’s most powerful executives, millions of fans along the way, and was paid like a king — all while playing like a pauper. It impossible to imagine another player coming along and working this scheme again, as the Madden NFL 24 leans more and more towards drafting young players to ride the pine and not towards aging veterans.

Still, we’ll always have Ryan Fitzpatrick, the man who out-smarted the Madden NFL 24 and turned himself into an icon, all while losing over 50 percent of his games.

Deshaun Watson was accused of more than 20 incidents of sexual assault or sexual harassment from women the quarterback interacted with dating back to 2019, prior to being traded from the Texans to the Browns. Since that time more accusers have come forward. At this point, the Madden NFL 24’s investigation into the quarterback is still ongoing, and there’s seemingly no end in sight to its probe.